Most anticipated Thursday morning’s skate to be an average one for the news cycle, coming ahead of the fourth game at home in a row for the Ottawa Senators.
Then appeared Thomas Chabot, just 15 days after suffering a forearm injury against the New York Rangers. Chabot underwent surgery on March 26, and Travis Green estimated that the defender would be out of the lineup for anywhere from 4-8 weeks.
"Nice to see him on the ice, anytime a guy gets out there in a morning skate, you know it's not far off,” said Travis Green on Thursday.
"It's definitely going to be sooner [than we anticipated], whenever it is... I'm hopeful that he'll be back sooner than later.
"He's extremely tough, one of the toughest players I've coached or played with when it comes to playing through injuries. It's quite amazing, to be honest."
“It might have been the fastest recovery I’ve ever seen,” said a smiling Tim Stützle after the skate. “Obviously he brings a lot of energy for our group, we miss him a lot, not just in the room, but obviously on the ice, and yeah, just having him back out there looks pretty good.”
Stützle and the Sens are coming off a 6-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, a potential first-round playoff opponent. Another potential matchup stands in their way on Tuesday in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In the first period of that win on Sunday, Stützle blew the roof off Canadian Tire Centre by splitting two Carolina defenders and tucking the puck past Frederik Andersen, reaching a speed of 35 kilometres per hour on the mad dash.
“He’s a superstar, as soon as I saw him get that puck, I knew he was gone, and then to see him pull off that move and bury it, I was just like, ‘wow,’” described Dylan Cozens.
“Just his competitiveness, he wants to win so bad, and he wants to be a difference maker so bad. He leads on and off the ice in that way, and when he gets the puck he wants to make something happen, so it’s been fun to watch.”
The Senators have split two meetings with the Lightning so far this season, and Green said that he’s expecting a good effort out of the group to tip the season series in their favour.
“Nothing more than our game, when we play our game and play it well we like it a lot,” said Green. “We liked it the other night, and I’m confident we’ll like our game tonight.”
